Blue Star Rapture (15 page)

Authors: JAMES W. BENNETT

BOOK: Blue Star Rapture

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She took off her coat, got seated at the kitchen table with the newspaper, and asked T.J. how he'd like some macaroni and cheese with cut-up hot dogs for supper.

“Don't get too comfortable,” he told her. “I want to take you out to the mall for a little while.”

“You must have the car running again.”

“Yeah, it's fixed. All the skin that used to be on my knuckles should grow back real soon.”

“So why do you want to go to the mall? What's out there?”

T.J. was leaning against the kitchen sink, peeling a banana. “I'm going to buy you a computer,” he said matter-of-factly.

His mother was in the process of hunting for the crossword. She looked up from her newspaper to say, “You're going to buy me a computer? What kind?”

“A Mac Performa, of course. A Power Mac. You do want to work on Quicken, don't you?”

“Did you win the lottery or something?”

He spoke as distinctly as he could with his mouth full. “Nope, no lottery. I want you to get your coat on.”

“I just took it off. If they're paying you that much money at Hardee's, maybe I should go to work there.”

“They aren't paying me anything at Hardee's. I quit.”

“When did you quit?”

“Last week. Get your coat on.”

“This really sounds crazy, T.J.”

“Crazy as it oughta be, that's how I see it. Now put your coat on.”

They drove east toward Veterans Parkway. His mother was trying to use the small mirror on the visor to apply some lipstick. It wasn't easy, because the ride was a rough one. “Why did you quit your job?” she asked him.

“So I can go out for basketball. Practice starts next week.”

“I'm glad, T.J.”

“I know you are. I guess I am too.”

“I'm glad,” she continued, “because you need more friends and more activities. It's good for you.”

“That's not why I'm doin' it, though, Ma.” It would probably please her just as much, or maybe more, to hear that he was going to start writing for the school newspaper.

“Why are you doing it, then?”

“Because I think I can be a good player. In fact, I think I
am
a good player.”

“I guess you must be, or they wouldn't have wanted you in that big-shot summer basketball camp.”

T.J. sighed before he answered. “We've been all over that before; there's nothin' else to say about it.” He was maneuvering into the exit lane that led to the mall parking lot. “I'll miss the money, though.”

“You've still got the paper route. That should get you by.”

“But the paper route only pays sixty dollars a week.”

“I know how much it pays,” she reminded him. “If you keep your needs simple, that's plenty of money.”

“My needs are real simple,” he declared. He found a parking spot close to JCPenney's and shut off the engine. “It's this car,” he added, while slapping the steering wheel for emphasis, “that has expensive tastes.”

Once in the mall, he took her to Kinko's. His mother admitted to him she didn't know Kinko's sold computers, to which he answered, “They sell computers by the hour, Ma. I'm going to buy you a Mac for an hour, or maybe even two, if you get into the flow.”

She was nodding her head. “I get it now. We're going to rent the Mac.”

“Buy, rent, whatever. Why don't we take the one down there on the end, the Power PC in the 6100 series.”

They booted up the Quicken program. She found her way into a standard payout chart, but when she wanted to move from field to field, she struggled clumsily with the mouse to set the cursor.

“You can move from field to field with the tab key,” T.J. told her. “It's a lot easier than messin' around with the mouse. And it's faster too.”

“That's what they were trying to teach us in class.”

“Well, they were right. Just hit the tab key and it moves the cursor to the next field.”

She did as he advised, but then complained. “Now it's in the debit column, which is what I don't want.”

“Then tab it again.” He watched her fingers working the keyboard. It wasn't the first time he'd noticed how long her fingers were, especially for such a small person. Her nails were uneven, but they were clean. When the cursor moved swiftly to the column she wanted, she leaned back in her chair and beamed, a wide smile spreading across her face like a child who gets an A on a spelling test.

“You could move to the fields down on the next level this way?”

“Exactly. It's that easy.”

“You are a good boy, T.J.,” she declared.

“Don't I know it, Ma. Ain't it the truth.”

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank my editors at Simon & Schuster, David Gale and Michael Conathan, for their productive and prompt editorial suggestions, which helped make
Blue Star Rapture
a better book. I am also indebted to fellow author Nancy Brokaw, whose ongoing perceptions about this book and my other manuscripts are a consistent blessing.

About the Author

James W. Bennett's uncompromising, challenging books for teens have earned him recognition as one of the nation's leadingâand most provocativeânovelists for young adults. His fiction has been used in curricula at the middle school, high school, and community college levels.

His 1995 novel,
The Squared Circle
, was named the year's finest by
English Journal
and the
Voice of Youth Advocates
.

Bennett has served as a guest author at Miami Book Fair International, as a featured speaker at the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE, and as a writer in residence (a program he established) for secondary schools in Illinois. He has also been the director for the Blooming Grove Writers Conference.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Mimi Bark

ISBN: 978-1-4976-8396-9

This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

345 Hudson Street

New York, NY 10014

www.openroadmedia.com